Water closet



N. LARSON April 7, 1942.

WATER CLOSET Filed Nov. 1, 1940 mvamon. Nels Larson/ Patented Apr. 7,1942 WATER CLOSET Nels Larson, Chicago, Illt, assignor to Duner 00.,

Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois.

Application November 1, 1940, Serial No. 363,904

3 Claims.

This invention relates in general to improvements in water closets,andmore particularly to the type of water closet in use in railway cars,and the like.

In the prior art water closets employing foot operated mechanism foractuating the dump pan, draft plate and flushing valve, diflicultieshave been encountered in the installation and operation of suchmechanism. United States Letters Patent No. 2,167,645, issued August 1,1939, to Sven Duner, discloses this type of mechanism. The difiicultiesinvolved result from initial inaccurate or improper mounting of the footoperated actuating mechanism, which may be due to unevenness orirregularities of the floor 1 or other closet supporting structure, andfrom wear caused by extensive use. The link connecting the foot operatedlever and the actuating mechanism in the device shown in the patentabove referred to is a one-piece casting, so that binding and faultyoperation will result if the foot operated lever is not properly andvery accurately located relative to it. Also, if the bumper on the footlever strikes thefloor or supporting structure too soon, the dump panwill not fully open, and, conversely, if the pan is fully opened beforethe bumper on the foot lever contacts the floor, the pan takes the shockof stopping the mechanism and the bumper does no good.

A principal object of the'instant invention, therefore, is theprovision'of a link for connecting the foot lever and the actuatingmechanism of such a water closet which is so constructed as to obviateall of the difiiculties hereinbefore referred to.

Another important object of the invention is the provision of such aconnecting link which includes a swivel arrangement or universal jointat one end to permitthe foot lever to be set at nism is mounted oneither side of the closet or hopper.

iii

Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparentas it is better understood from the following description, which, whentaken in connection with the accompanying drawing, discloses a preferredembodiment thereof.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a water closet embodying the features ofthe invention;

Figure 2 is a front elevational view of part of the device of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the connecting link, with the centralpart broken away and the lower end shown in section; and

Figure 4 is a top plan view of the connecting 1ink,'with part of thehorizontal pin shown in section substantially on the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, reference numeral IIindicates in general a water closet or hopper of standard constructionwhich may be made of vitreous china, similar to that disclosed in PatentNo. 1,992,653, issued February 26, 1935, to Sven Duner, or to that shownin Patent No. 2,167,645 hereinbefore referred to. It is to beunderstood, of course, that the hopper ll may be made of any otherdesired material and'shape, since the instant invention relates to theoperating mechanism associated therewith, and not to the specificconstruction of the hopper. The hopper ll comprises a hollow bowl andstandportion, interiorly of which is disposed an upper pan or dump panl2 rigidly secured to a transverse shaft l3 extending through the hopperadjacent the lower end of the bowl. A draft plate 14 is mounted on ashaft or shafts l5, disposed adjacent the lower end of the standportion.

In the normal position of the parts, as shown in the drawing, the dumppan I2 is closed and the draft plate I4 is open. Means are provided forsuccessively openings. flushing valve, raising or closing the draftplate I 4, lowering or opening the dump pan l2, raising or closing thedump pan I 2, opening or lowering the draft plate l4, and shutting offthe valve, in order to perform a complete flushing operation. This meanscomprises similar mechanism to that disclosed in the two patentspreviously cited, particularly the foot operated mechanism of No.2,167,645, the mechanism of No. 1,992,653 being hand operated.Consequently, the major portion of the operating mechanism will be onlybriefly described herein, a more complete and detailed description beinggiven in said patents of similar mechanism for performing the samefunctions.

The shaft I5, upon which the draft plate M is mounted, carries an armwhich is rigidly secured to one end thereof, and an arm |B looselymounted thereon. The arms I1 and I8 are yieldably interconnected by aspring IS. A pin 2| projects laterally from the arm" I8 (Fig. 2), andnormally rests in a recess 22 (Fig. 1) provided in the outer surface ofa segment 23. The segment 23 is rotatably mounted upon the outer end ofthe shaft l3, and is rigidly connected in any suitable manner to a crankarm 24 having a pin 25 extending outwardly therefrom. The members 23 and24 are so arranged on the shaft l3 as to be capable of a slight degreeof rotation relative thereto in a clockwise direction, viewing Fig. 1,before picking up the shaft and rotating the same therewith. Thismechanism is similar in function to that disclosed in Patent No.1,948,101, issued to John C. Duner on February 20, 1934.

The pin 25 extends through a slot 26 provided in the lower end of a link.21. The upper end of the link 21 is pivotally connected to a lever 28which controls the actuation of flush valve mechanism, indicatedgenerally by reference numeral 29. The flushing valve 29 may be of anydesired construction, and is provided for the usual purpose ofdelivering water to the interior of the hopper II. All of the mechanismso far described herein is disclosed in greater detail in the patentspreviously cited.

The instant invention contemplates the provision of novel means foroperating the mechanism hereinabove described. This means comprises alink, indicated generally by reference numeral 3|. The main body portionof the link 3| comprises an upper part or rod 32 and a lower part 33adjustab-ly connected together. As will be seen in Fig. 3, the upperportion of the lower part 33 is provided with a tapped bore 34 intowhich the lower threaded end of the rod 32 is screwed. A washer 35 andlock nut 36 are mounted on the rod 32 for cooperation with the upper endof the lower member 33 to retain the parts in any desired adjustedposition.

The upper end of the rod 32 is reduced in circumference to provide a pinportion 31. A pin member 38 (Fig. 4) is provided with an enlarged headportion 39 which is rotatably mounted upon the pin portion 31 of the rod32. A washer 4| is rigidly secured to the pin 37 in any suitable mannerto retain the pin member 38 thereon. A second pin member 42 is providedwith an enlarged head portion 43 which is rotatably mounted upon the pin33 and retained thereon by a washer 44 rigidly secured in any suitablemanner to the outer end portion of the pin 38. This arrangement providesa universal joint in which the first pin 38 is mounted for rotation onthe rod 32 in a plane normal to the axis thereof, and the second pin 42is mounted for rotation on the first pin 38 in a plane parallel to theaxis of the rod 32. The pin 42 comprises the pivotal connection for thelink 2'! and lever 28, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The lower member 33 of the link 3| terminates at its lower end in a fiatportion 45 (Fig. 3) having an aperture 43 extending therethrough. A pin41 (Fig. 1) extends through the aperture 43 and a similar apertureprovided in the rear end of a foot lever 48 to pivotally interconnectthe latter and the link 3|. The foot lever 48 is pivotally mountedintermediate its ends on a pin 48 which is supported by a bracket Thebracket 5| is secured in any suitable manner to the floor or othersupporting surface upon which the hopper II is mounted, such surfacebeing diagrammatically indicated in Figs. 1 and 2 by the broken line 52.The forward end of the foot lever 48 is provided on its under surfacewith a bumper 53 of any suitable resilient material.

.The normal position of the above described parts is that shown in thedrawing. The sequential operation of the flushing valve 29, the

draft plate l4 and the dump pan I2, as hereinbefore described, isperformed by downward movement of the forward end of the foot lever 48.In such operation, the bumper 53 should contact the supporting surface52 just prior to movement of the dump pan l2 to fully lowered or openedposition. In the prior art devices shown in the patents previouslycited, positioning of the foot lever 48 and bracket 5| to insure suchoperation was extremely difficult, without impairing the actuation ofthe operating mechanism. With the present construction, the length oflink 3| may be readily adjusted by means of the threaded connectionbetween the rod Y32 and the lower member 33 to insure that the bumper 53will contact the supporting surface 52 at the proper time in relation tothe operation of the dump pan l2, regardless of any irregularities orunevenness of the suporting surface 52. As has also been pointed outhereinbefore, the prior art constructions necessitated the absolutelyaccurate positoning of the bracket 5| in order to prevent binding orother misoperation of the actuating mechanism. With the presentconstruction, the bracket 5| and foot lever 48 may be disposed at anangle relative to the hopper without in any way impairing the operationof the actuating mechanism, because of the provision of the universaljoint mechanism comprising the pins 38 and 4:2. This is of particularimportance in the installation of a water closet in a railway car or thelike, because of the limited space normally provided therefor. The link3| also has the distinct advantage over the connecting links of theprior art of being adapted for use on either side of the hopper H. Inthe prior art constructions, it was necessary to provide left hand andright hand connecting links in order to permit the installation of theoperating mechanism on either side of the hopper. With the link 3|,however, the parts may be installed on either side of the hopper becauseof the provision of the rotatable pins 38 and 42.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantageswill be understood from the foregoing description, and it will beapparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction andarrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the formhereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

I claim.

1. In a water closet having dump pan mechanism, operating mechanismtherefor, and a foot operated lever; a link pivotally connected at oneend to said lever and adapted to be moved longitudinally thereby tocompressively transmit movement of said lever to said operatingmechanism, a pin mounted for rotation on the other end of said link in aplane normal to the axis thereof, and a second pin mounted for rotationon said first pin in a plane parallel with the axis of said link andpivotally connected to said operating mechanism.

2. In a water closet having dump pan mech- 10 to the axis of said rod.

anism, an operating member therefor, and a foot actuated member; meansinterconnecting said members to transmit compressive forces from thelatter to the former, comprising a rod pivotally connected to said footoperated member at one end and having the other end reduced to providean axially extending journal portion, and a bolt pivotally connected tosaid operating member and freely rotatable on said journal portionnormal NELS LARSON.

